Clay and the others glanced at him with confused expressions on their faces. However, that was when they heard it. A screech like no other sounded in the area. Warning them of the arrival of something far greater than what they had been facing for all of this time. Clay and the others gasped at the sight of it as the horde started to retreat. They scurried away with shrill screeches of their own as the boss finally made its appearance.

Exile wore a grim expression as he studied the creature. It was twelve feet tall and looked like the Deep Stalkers. Except it had ten arms that looked far longer and stronger than its weaker counterparts. 'This doesn't look good...'

​​

The sudden withdrawal of the adult Deep Stalkers allowed the rest of the alliance to catch up with them with relative ease. However, nobody thought for a moment that this was a good development. Noslin's eyes were wide as she studied the creature. The worst part of it was that it was already between them and the statue that hid their escape route.

"Why has this thing shown up now?" Noslin groaned at their hopeless situation.

"I think the horde is the key to it." Exile grimaced. "We probably had to deal enough damage for this thing to appear. Like different stages of a boss battle."

The other leaders revealed ugly expressions at his analysis. They could agree that it made sense, but this was too much in their eyes for this point in the game. They could only watch as the creature seemed to study them in return.

"So, what do we do?" Beartooth clenched his jaw as he prepared to bark orders at his Pantheon.

"We make a run for it... Everyone scatters and hopefully, we can make it out." Noslin decisively commanded.

"No!" Exile shook his head at her. "That will only make everyone easier prey, and it may work out where we want to go. We need a distraction."

"And who's going to take that role? Nobody here will sacrifice their Pantheon just so the others can make it out." One of the leaders scowled as he ran a hand over his bald head.

Everyone hesitated as they listened to the conversation. Exile was right, but so was the other leader. It would be foolish to give the others an advantage like that.

"We'll do it..." Exile whispered, causing looks of shock to appear on those around him.

"Exile... we can't!" Clay growled as Exile shot a confused look at him.

"When I said we... I meant Noslin and I." Exile chuckled as he glanced towards her. "We're the strongest here, so we can survive the longest. Plus, as joint leaders, we have to take responsibility for this failure... But I doubt we can buy you much time, so get out as fast as you can."

The other leaders slowly began to nod as they digested that. Their evaluation of Exile went higher as they realised he was the type of leader who put himself in danger if it was needed. Their gazes turned to Noslin to see if she agreed with the plan. She slowly nodded in response while clenching her jaw. It was not like she could decline now that Exile had made that statement in front of everyone.

The other leaders looked relieved, but a tinge of worry crossed their features. If their two strongest players were to suffer a defeat here, they would lose a fair bit of power. Of course, they had no idea what it meant to be Tier 1 yet, but they suspected that it would be a heavy blow.

"Clay, you take the offensive team around the left side of that creature to the statue. Beartooth should lead the defensive team around its right. If any of you die, I won't be happy." Exile smirked as he gestured to Noslin.

The pair of them walked side by side towards the boss of the Deep Stalkers as the others scattered. The boss seemed confused about whom to target, but it could sense that the players approaching it were the biggest threats out of all of them. An ear-piercing screech came out of it as it launched itself into the air.

Exile wasted no time in redeploying his Lesser Blessing spell to give himself more speed as he sped out of the boss's landing zone. Meanwhile, Noslin turned a patch of the ground into ice and used it to slide to safety. The ice cracked as the boss landed on it while taking a swing at Exile.

'It's best not to block it...' Exile ground his teeth as he forced himself to duck fast enough to stop himself from being swatted like a fly. Noslin took that opportunity to surround the boss with her cold winds, slowly sapping at its speed and reaction times. Exile nodded his head towards her when he saw that. Their goal was to buy time for everyone else before they made their own escape.

'If we're buying time, it's best if I harass it and dodge as much as possible. Noslin should focus on slowing it down and support...' Exile roared as he used his new speed to rush towards the creature's legs. He swung his axe viciously towards it but the boss managed to avoid that blow.

Exile frowned in surprise at that sight. 'Damn! It's still so fast despite Noslin's debuff?' He felt like nothing more than a fly to the creature as it tried to strike him again. However, its longer limbs caused it to telegraph its attacks, which allowed Exile to dodge them fairly easily. Exile glanced towards the sides and noticed that the others had not yet crossed the halfway mark to the statue.

'This is going to be tough...' Exile growled as he made another pass at trying to land a blow. But the boss was ready for him and used that moment to make a well-timed attack instead...